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Kim
06-23-2009, 11:21 PM
Any MA's know any tricks on how to get the perfect starched cover? I got the inserts for Derek's cover but they still don't look good enough. If I were to starch it the way it looks with the inserts he would surly get a hit during inspections!

Tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated!

butterbean
06-25-2009, 04:36 PM
Find out if they have the same standards as the Marines covers, and I'll talk to Gunny and my brother about it.

nwig
06-25-2009, 09:44 PM
Kim,
I'm not a Marine, but my son used to be in Young Marines, and I developed a real "science" to a perfectly blocked cover.

It takes a Tru-Shape cover blocker (the top & bottom parts), some starch (for the inside of the cover), some popsicle sticks, binder clips, and a dryer with a sweater drying rack.

Or if you want to mail me the cover; I'll block it and mail it back. It would take me too long to try to write out instructions - and it's sort of become a bit of an "art". And then if the cover is any size smaller than a Medium; I had a custom sized blocker made as well.

PM me if you're intersted.
Nancy

Kim
06-29-2009, 04:20 AM
Kim,
I'm not a Marine, but my son used to be in Young Marines, and I developed a real "science" to a perfectly blocked cover.

It takes a Tru-Shape cover blocker (the top & bottom parts), some starch (for the inside of the cover), some popsicle sticks, binder clips, and a dryer with a sweater drying rack.

Or if you want to mail me the cover; I'll block it and mail it back. It would take me too long to try to write out instructions - and it's sort of become a bit of an "art". And then if the cover is any size smaller than a Medium; I had a custom sized blocker made as well.

PM me if you're intersted.
Nancy

Ohhh.... Nancy, if we mailed you a cover would you consider making a video too?

He's got the inserts except the card board thing for the top which we're going to pick up this week. The rain has been so bad here that the awesome blocking job a buddy did for him is completely ruined! He doesn't have the dryer rack or access to a oven as he lives in the barracks.... so that makes things a bit more of a challenge.

Also, his cover is a large. I think he has the biggest head of them all here.. haha

nwig
06-29-2009, 06:14 PM
Kim,
I don't know about a video, but I'm pretty sure that a few photos would do the trick for instructions.

Actually, the more I think of it, I forgot that I have a cover for my son that I got when last visiting him. The idea was to be able to send him a newly blocked cover about mid-way into his deployment, so he'd have a refreshed cover.

So you could still send the cover, or I could see about doing the blocking on the cover I have and send you pictures/instructions.

As for not having an oven or dryer rack; if one has a good amount of patience, a workable substitute is a good hair blow-dryer. So if it rains, he could use the blow-dryer to reblock it. I know when I visited James, the blocking job on his cover got pretty washed out when it rained.

Also, since you are working with a large cover, here is a link to what the octagon cover-blocker looks like (not a great picture, but you should be able to get the idea):
http://www.armysurplusworld.com/product.asp?ProductID=43090

But just using this blocker is only part of the equation. I take 2-inch portions of popcicle sticks and use binder-clips (think huge paper clips) to create a really super sharp creases at each of the 8 folds around the top of the cover.

Let me know if you just want pictures of how I do it (might be this weekend before I can get to it) or if you still want to send the cover - either way is fine.

Kim
06-30-2009, 10:47 PM
Pictures would be awesome if you could?